Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations

Opinion: Individual Mandate ‘Little More Than a Suggestion’

In an Orange County Register opinion piece, Sally Pipes -- president and CEO of the Pacific Research Institute -- writes that the individual insurance mandate included in the Affordable Care Act "is turning out to be little more than a suggestion" because nearly 24 million individuals are "expected be exempt in 2016" and anotherÂ six million people likely will pay a fine rather than purchase coverage. She writes, "[I]t's clear that the individual mandate will fail to deliver the universal coverage its backers promised."